Between The Darkness And The Dawn
by autumnrose2010
Summary: AH. After emerging from a twenty-year coma, former high school cheerleader Rose Hathaway finds herself living in a strange and frightening world. With the loving support of her former coach, Dimitri Belikov, she struggles to adjust to life in the twenty-first century.
1. Rose

**1994**

Lissa heard the bell ring and the scraping of chairs against the floor as her students prepared to leave the classroom. Rose Hathaway stopped by Lissa's desk on her way out.

"Thank you so much for explaining the assignment again, Ms. Dragomir. It makes so much more sense to me now."

"Why, you're welcome, Rose. Any time you need some extra help, please don't hesitate to ask."

Rose smiled, showing her dimples. She was a slender brunette with wispy hair that tended to fall in her face a lot if she wasn't wearing a ponytail and soft brown eyes. She had a quick smile, a gentle manner, and an aura of innocence about her that charmed all the faculty members who knew her. She was a dedicated and enthusiastic cheerleader.

"You're coming to the game Friday night, aren't you?"

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away from that game, Rose." Lissa smiled reassuringly at her.

"Great! See you there, then!"

"Good-bye, Rose." Lissa watched Rose's retreating back for a moment before gathering her things and heading for the teacher's lounge.

Upon entering the lounge, Lissa noticed that the P.E. teacher and football coach, Dimitri Belikov, was sitting at a table drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. He looked up when Lissa entered.

"Hello, Dimitri." She nodded a greeting on her way to the coffee pot.

"Hi there, Lissa." Dimitri and Lissa were the two newest members of the faculty and were both still learning the ropes.

"Rose Hathaway's one of your students, right?"

"Yes, I just saw her five minutes ago. She needed a little extra help with an assignment."

"That's Rose, always trying to do the best she can with any assignment she's given. I was just thinking how much more of a breeze teaching would be if all my students were like Rose."

"She always tries so hard, and she has such a pleasant attitude," Lissa agreed.

"She's certainly a joy to teach," Dimitri continued. He finished his coffee and headed for the gym. He couldn't stop thinking about Rose Hathaway. She seemed to have affected him in a way no other student had. It wasn't that hard to figure out why. Not only was she a good student and an excellent cheerleader, but she was also beautiful, intelligent, vivacious...and only seventeen. In addition, she was madly in love with his star football player, Adrian Ivashkov. _Oh well, such is life, _Dimitri concluded with a sigh as he reached the gym and prepared for his next class.

* * *

"Rose!" Rose heard the shout of her boyfriend, Adrian Ivashkov, over the din of the other students' voices. He reached her side and gave her a quick hug and kiss.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"A lot better, now that I'm with you again." Adrian put his arm around her and fell into step beside her as they walked away from the school.

"Mrs. Dragomir said that she was coming to the game Friday night."

"Which we're going to win, of course. We'll have to, with you there. You're my good luck charm, girl."

"Oh, Adrian!" Rose blushed with pleasure.

"Hi, Adrian!" Rose saw her younger sister, Sydney, rushing toward them, several strands of dark blonde hair, moist with perspiration, sticking to her forehead.

"Hiya, Short Stuff," Adrian greeted Sydney, who looked annoyed for just a moment but quickly regained her cheerful disposition.

"Are you coming over this afternoon?" Sydney asked hopefully.

"Of course I am! You know I'd never miss a chance to see your sister."

Sydney, looking crestfallen, fell into step behind Adrian and Rose.

While eating dinner that evening, Rose began to feel a slight pain that seemed to be located directly behind her right eyeball. Rose, who never got headaches, felt worried for a minute or two. _Maybe it's just my hormones, or stress from school, _she told herself.

"Do you feel all right, honey?" Janine Hathaway's eyebrows were creased with concern.

"I'm fine, Mom. Just a little tired, is all," Rose assured her. "A good night's sleep is all I need."

Adrian held her hand a little longer than usual when he said good-bye to her later.

"Are you sure you feel all right, Rose?"

"I'm fine, Adrian. Please don't worry about me."

"Okay, Rose. I'll see you at school tomorrow then."

He kissed her lips tenderly, even more tenderly than usual, before turning to leave.

From her bedroom window, Sydney watched the interaction and felt a longing stir deep inside her. _Stop that, Sydney! You know it can never be,_ she told herself, trying with all her might to squash the sensation.

That night, Rose went to sleep and dreamed of a winning football game and dancing with Adrian at an after-game party.


	2. Tragedy

"Go! Fight! Win!" the cheerleaders shouted as the football players performed on the field.

"Sydney! Your sister's cheering and you can't even watch!" Janine Hathaway scolded her younger daughter.

"Rose is only performing for _Adrian," _sneered a jealous Sydney.

The game over, Adrian and Rose exited the stadium with their arms around one another.

"Remember you're still in training!" Dimitri shouted to Adrian.

"Yes sir, Coach Belikov! No milk shakes for me, only ice water!" Adrian replied. "I didn't say anything about a banana split, did I?" he added softly to Rose as he led her into the ice cream parlor.

* * *

Everyone was talking excitedly about the game in school Monday morning. Lissa knew that it would be a challenge to get the students focused on their classwork.

"Wasn't it awesome?" chirped Rose, as soon as she saw Joanie.

"It sure was! Adrian and the rest of the team played a great game. I know you're so proud of him," Lissa replied.

"I sure am," Rose said with a huge grin.

The class went well, and Lissa watched as Rose and the others left.

A couple of minutes later, Lissa heard a commotion in the hallway and went to investigate. A group of students surrounded Dimitri Belikov, who was holding Rose's limp body.

"She fainted," Dimitri explained. "Rose, are you all right? Rose?"

There was no response.

"Oh my God, she's unconscious." In a panic, Dimitri dashed for the school clinic, the silent students making room for him to pass. The school nurse met them at the clinic's entrance.

"She's completely unresponsive," Dimitri told her, unable to hide the urgency in his voice.

"She's breathing, and her pulse is regular," the nurse said, after checking Rose briefly. "You two stay with her while I call for an ambulance."

Dimitri gently lay Rose's body on a cot in the clinic, and he and Lissa kept a vigil at her side for the few minutes it took the ambulance to reach the school. Dimitri gently brushed her hair back from her forehead, a look of grave concern on his face.

The ambulance arrived, and Rose was rushed to the hospital. The school nurse called Janine Hathaway and told her what had happened to her daughter.

The halls and classrooms were eerily silent for the rest of that day. Everyone discussed what had happened in shocked whispers. None of the students were able to concentrate on their classwork, and Lissa was relieved when the final bell rang at the end of the day.

Lissa didn't sleep well at all that night. She hoped that there would be encouraging news about Rose's condition the next day.

The next day, Lissa and Dimitri went to visit Rose in the hospital. She lay in bed unconscious with an IV in her arm. Janine Hathaway sat beside her daughter's bed, her face wearing an expression of profound grief. Her daughter Sydney sat beside her looking sullen, and Adrian sat on Sydney's other side with a bewildered expression in his eyes. Lissa noticed that Adrian and Sydney were sitting very close together.

"My name is Lissa Dragomir, and this is Dimitri Belikov," Lissa said by way of introduction. "Both of us are Rose's teachers."

"The doctors told me she has some type of rare encephalitis," Janine said mournfully. "They don't know whether or not she'll pull through, or the amount of brain damage she might sustain if she does make it. They say that she may just be like this indefinitely. They told us it's too early yet to know what the final outcome will be."

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Hathaway," Lissa said. "If there's anything at all that I can do to help, please let me know."

"I just can't believe it," Adrian said. "At the game Friday night, she was just so...alive. When I scored that last touchdown, she was happier than I've ever seen her. Yesterday morning she was her normal lively, talkative self. And now..." His voice trailed off as he stared glumly at Rose's still form lying there. Sydney laid one of her hands over one of his in a gesture of comfort.

"The last time I talked with Rose," Dimitri told Lissa as they headed for the car after their visit, "She asked me to help her with a cheer that she said she just couldn't get right. I told her that I was busy and to ask one of the other cheerleaders for help. If only I had known..." He looked absolutely despondent. Lissa felt so sorry for him.

Rose's condition remained unchanged for a number of days. The hospital did all that they could for her, but in the end she was sent home to be cared for primarily by her mother.


	3. Awake

**2014**

"I tell you, she responded!" Janine said to Sydney. "It wasn't much, but she mimicked what I said to her. I'm gonna start her on the shots again."

"Now, Mom, you already tried that a few years ago. Remember, Adrian?" Sydney asked her husband, who nodded. "Nothing happened that time. You don't want to get your hopes up for nothing again."

"Hopes are all I've had for twenty years," Janine replied. "Do you want to take that away from me?"

"Mom, she's made noises before, or smiled," Sydney reminded her mother. "Do you really want to go through that all over again? The seizures, the irregular heartbeat?"

"They've made improvements in the drugs," Janine argued.

Several weeks passed. Rose was given the drugs but at first seemed to have made no improvement. Then one night she opened her eyes at the sound of the wind chimes just outside her window. Mesmerized, she got out of her bed and took her first steps in twenty years. "Mama?"

Janine heard her daughter call to her and dashed upstairs, only to find Rose collapsed on her bedroom floor.

* * *

Several days later, Janine heard talking coming from Rose's room and went to investigate. She found Rose busily talking to herself while rummaging through drawers. "Where are my things, Mom?" she cried. "Sydney's been in here again, hasn't she? It isn't fair! I don't mess with _her _stuff!"

"Rose, honey, you've been sick," Janine said patiently. "There's a lot you don't remember. Some things have been changed around, but it's all right. You'll get used to things being the way they are now."

Rose just stared back at her mother with wide, frightened eyes.

* * *

At the advice of Rose's neurologist, Janine kept her away from the rest of the family, as the doctor had warned her that the shock of finding out that she'd really been asleep for twenty years right away might send her daughter right back into the coma. Rose began physical therapy, learning to walk and to take care of her basic needs all over again.

One day Rose was looking through her high school yearbook and came across a photograph of Adrian. The following morning, she saw a couple of teenage girls walking to school and automatically fell into step behind them. Entering the building, she was totally bewildered as she looked around at a sea of unfamiliar faces. She didn't recognize a soul, then suddenly realized that everything else looked different as well: the hallway, the doors, _everything. _Fighting a mounting surge of panic, she continued to walk down the hallway, completely unnoticed by anyone else, until she finally saw a familiar face. "Adrian?"

The teenage boy looked at her nervously. "I'm getting out of here," he muttered.

"Adrian!" cried Rose, frantically taking off after him, until she felt a gentle hand grasp her upper arm and turned to look into a pair of familiar brown eyes.

"Rose?"

"Coach Belikov?"

* * *

Dimitri helped her back home. He'd heard from Mason, Adrian and Sydney's son who was currently one of his students, that Janine had planned to start Rose back on the shots again, but in his heart of hearts he'd truly believed that they'd once again prove to be a waste of time, so he'd been genuinely shocked to find the former cheerleader not only up and walking, but actually visiting her former school.

Seeing her standing in the hallway lost and confused, gazing at Mason and believing him to be his father Adrian, Dimitri's heart had gone out to Rose. He'd realized that she thought it was still 1994, that she was still seventeen years old. He'd known that he shouldn't be the one to tell her the truth, yet he'd desperately wished that there was something he could do to help her.

"Come on," he'd said at last. "Let me take you home. I'm sure your mother's really worried about you."

* * *

Overwhelmed, Rose felt that she had no choice but to do as Dimitri had said. In his presence she suddenly felt calm, as if he were a lifeboat on a turbulent sea. She clung to him, knowing that he would keep her safe.

"Here we are." They'd arrived back at her house. He gave her a friendly smile and then turned to walk back to the school.

She entered the house to find her mother sitting beside the telephone. "There you are!" Janine exclaimed. "I've been worried sick about you!"

"How long was I asleep, Mom?" asked Rose. "A month? A year?"

"It doesn't matter now," Janine said quickly. "All that matters now is that you're better, and getting even better all the time. Come on, let's have some hot chocolate."

"Mom?" Rose was practically shouting. "Where are my school books? My clothes? Why doesn't Sydney live here anymore?"

"Sydney's married now."

"How could you let her get married?"

"She was nineteen, old enough to make her own decisions."

"But _I'm _not even nineteen yet!" Rose could feel the icy grip of fear squeezing her heart.

"There's something you've got to know," Janine began. "You'll find out anyway. Do you remember Adrian?"

"Of _course _I remember Adrian! Where is he?"

"Adrian and Sydney are married now, Rose."

"But Adrian loves _me!" _Rose was so upset that she could barely get the words out. "How could you let her do that? She knows that I love Adrian, and that he loves me!"

"Darling, Adrian waited for you for _so _long."

"How long has it been, Mom? How long was I asleep for?"

"Twenty years."


	4. Strange New World

"My God..." Shattered, Rose collapsed into a chair. "I missed it all, didn't I?"

Depressed, she wouldn't leave her room for days, until one day she decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. She saw amazing things that astounded her. A young woman walked down the sidewalk holding a tiny gadget to her ear and talking and giggling into it.

"What on earth is that?" Rose blurted abruptly.

"What's _what?" _

"That..._thing _you're holding to your ear..."

"Huh? It's my cell phone, duh!" the young woman said rudely.

_"Cell _phone?" Rose pondered aloud after the young woman had left.

She looked into a store window and was amazed to see what appeared to be computer screens inside thin briefcases. As she watched, mouth agape, a young man closed one of the briefcase-like items and walked out of the store with it. Curious, Rose followed him into a nearby fast food restaurant, where he flipped the briefcase-like item open and, once again, the computer screen appeared.

He noticed Rose staring and turned to her. "Do you mind?"

She was transfixed by what she was viewing on the computer screen. "What's _that?"_

"It's just the internet," the young man told Rose, who continued to stare wordlessly. "You know, the world wide web." He frowned. "What's wrong with you?"

Suddenly very frightened, Rose dashed out of the fast food restaurant and back onto the sidewalk, where she almost collided with another young man, this one wearing work-out clothes.

"Excuse me," he muttered. "I'm late for zumba."

"Zumba? What on earth is that?" asked Rose, but the young man had already disappeared.

Suddenly she brightened as she saw the entrance to the ice cream parlor. "Banana split," she muttered as she opened the door, only to be bewildered at what she saw.

The tables and chairs were still there, but instead of enjoying milkshakes and sundaes, the patrons drank from clear plastic cups containing frothy liquids of various colors. Rose looked at the list of menu items posted above the counter and noticed that they included 'celery smoothies' and 'dark chocolate acai with blueberries."

Feeling as if she'd just stepped off an airplane and found herself in China, she continued on. Suddenly she heard someone shouting her name and turned to confront a television reporter.

"It's now 2014," he said, shoving a microphone in front of Rose's face. "How does it feel to have lost twenty years of your life?"

"Well...I..."

"What does the doctor say? What's the prognosis?"

"It's good..." Overwhelmed, Rose turned away from the reporter and stumbled back home, realizing that her mother had indeed been telling the truth.

* * *

Dimitri entered the teacher's lounge to find Lissa pouring herself a cup of coffee. She glanced up as she heard him enter. "Want me to pour you one as well?"

"Yes, please. Two creams and two artificial sweeteners." He sat down at the table. "You'll never believe who's back."

"You mean here? At the school?"

He nodded.

"Who?"

"Remember Rose Hathaway?"

"Oh, that poor girl." Lissa brought Dimitri his coffee and sat down across from him. "Such a tragedy. I've thought about her so many times over the years, wondering what she would have become if she'd only had the chance. But now you say she's back? What do you mean?"

"Her mother tried her on the shots again, and they worked this time. She's out of her coma and up walking around again, Lissa. She came up to the school this morning. She seemed really confused but she remembered me. I made sure she got back home safely."

"That's wonderful!" Lissa exclaimed. "I'll have to pay her a visit as soon as possible. I'd love to see her again."

* * *

Janine took Rose to have dinner with Adrian, Sydney, and Mason. Sydney greeted and embraced her sister, and Adrian shook Rose's hand. "Mason should be down in a minute," he told her.

Suddenly the teenager appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Rose gasped. "Mason." Haltingly, her nephew came to her and embraced her. "We bumped into one another at the school one day," she remarked to the others.

"I'm sorry I ran away," Mason said. "I didn't know what else to do."

Later, the family sat around the table chatting over dinner. "Barack Obama?" Rose squealed with laughter. "What kind of name is that for a president?"

"His father was from Kenya, so he's half African," Mason explained.

"I bumped into Coach Belikov at the school too," Rose commented. "He walked me home."

"Dimitri's a really cool teacher," said Mason. "I like him."

"Dimitri? You mean Coach Belikov? I never knew his first name...he's from another country, isn't he?"

"Russia," Adrian told her. "He started teaching at the school twenty years ago, when he first came to the United States. We were his first class."

"And now he's Mason's teacher..."

"And football coach," Mason added.

Janine and Sydney met up in the kitchen. "She's having a blast!" Sydney complained, the image of Rose and Adrian talking and laughing together burning into her brain.

"Well, what do you expect?" asked Janine. "She was asleep for twenty years, Sydney. In her mind, she's still seventeen years old."

"Adrian's _my _husband," the younger woman pouted.

Later, Adrian walked Rose home. "You have to understand," Rose began. "To me, all those nights we went parking by the lake seem like only yesterday. I'm still in love with you, Adrian."

"But Rose, I'm _married." _Adrian tried, but failed, to understand his sister-in-law's anguish. "I have a son."

"When Mom first told me that you and Sydney were married, I wanted to kill her!" Rose exploded. "My first thought was, I'll do anything I can to get him back. Everything was taken away from me: my life, my future, you, _everything! _All that I had is gone, and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it!"


	5. Lissa's Party

Rose sat on the bleachers of the high school football field, watching her nephew run around the track with the other football players. Dimitri walked over to her. "Nice to have you back at school, Rose."

"Thank you, Coach Belikov." She smiled. "It's good to be back."

"Hey, you don't have to call me Coach Belikov anymore." He extended his hand to her. "It's Dimitri."

"Dimitri." She shook his hand. "So, do you _really _remember me?"

He sat on the bleacher in front of her, took off his cap, and swept his hair back with his fingers. Then he looked at her. "I have to admit I do."

"Why? Because you stayed in touch with Adrian?"

"I always thought you were kind of cute, but you were too young for me."

"Who said so?"

He grinned. "The law."

She felt her heart begin to beat faster. She was afraid but she knew that she had to ask. "So do you have a family now?"

He shook his head. "I'm divorced. You?"

She laughed. "Oh, sure!"

"Well, I was just checking." He shrugged. "In case some night I want to... invite you for dinner?"

* * *

Janine put the present she'd just finished wrapping underneath the Christmas tree. "Honey, are you ready to go?" she called up the stairs to her daughter. "Honey?"

Rose appeared, dressed in sage green slacks and a matching turtleneck shirt. "Oh, Rose, you look wonderful!" Janine exclaimed.

"I don't want to go to Lissa's party, Mom," said Rose. "It'll just be so awkward!"

"Oh, honey, it'll be the same as if you'd moved out of town after graduation and are coming back for your twenty-year reunion!"

"It _won't _be the same, and you know it!" Rose cried.

Arriving at her former teacher's front door, she felt her heart beat faster in anticipation. What would it be like to see Lissa again for the first time after twenty years? How much had she changed?

"Rose!" Lissa cried as she opened the door. "It's so good to see you again!"

"It's good to see you again too, Miss Drag...Lissa!" Suddenly near tears, Rose embraced her former teacher.

Rose met many of her former classmates at the party, but strangely, she had the urge to cling to Lissa as a drowning man would to a lifesaver. Previously they'd been teacher and student, but now the boundaries somehow seemed to have been swept away, and they could simply be friends.

"This is my husband, Christian Ozera," Lissa said proudly. Rose gasped in surprise.

"Christian Ozera? But you used to hate him!" Rose said to Lissa when the two of them were alone.

Lissa chuckled. "Well, he sort of grew on me." The two moved to a table in the corner, where they sat sipping their drinks and chatting.

"The music sure is different," Rose remarked as Lady Gaga belted out 'Bad Romance.'

Lissa smiled. "That it is."

"Whatever happened to Nirvana? Did they break up after Kurt Cobain killed himself?"

"They're still around, but they call themselves the Foo Fighters now."

"The Foo Fighters?" Rose giggled.

Although she felt comfortable chatting with Lissa, Rose soon began to feel just as awkward as she'd predicted she'd feel amongst her former classmates. After all, they'd all experienced twenty years worth of memories she hadn't. Soon she found herself upstairs with Lissa's daughter Skylar and her friends, regaling them with stories of her own high school days before she'd slipped into the coma.

Suddenly Lissa and Dimitri appeared. "Come on, Rose," Dimitri said kindly but firmly as he took her hand. "Let's go downstairs. That's where the party is."

"I didn't know what anyone was talking about!" Rose complained as the two of them walked together.

"I know," Dimitri sympathized.

"I don't even remember who most of them _were. _I'm almost forty years old and I've never had a job, never graduated high school. What do I do now?" she sobbed.

* * *

One morning soon afterwards, Rose was upstairs moping in her bedroom when she heard someone calling to her from outside her open window. "Rose! Oh, Miss Rose! Better hurry up or you're going to be late!"

Rose looked out the window and, to her surprise, she saw Dimitri standing on her front lawn and calling up to her. "Dimitri! What on earth are you doing here?"

"What's the matter? Haven't you ever had a boy walk you to school before?" he replied.

Rose hurried downstairs to meet him. "Where are you going?" Janine asked her.

"I haven't the vaguest idea," she replied with a smile.

Dimitri led her to the school library. "I've arranged for you to come here five days a week to study," he told her. "At the end of the semester, you'll have enough credits to receive your high school diploma."

"You're sending me back to school?" Rose couldn't believe it.

"And then on to college, if you want."


	6. All That Matters

_Warning: This chapter contains some 'M' rated material._

Rose soon found that she was literally starving for knowledge about all the things that had happened in the world during the twenty years she'd been asleep. On her first morning at the library, she became so engrossed in reading back issues of 'Time' and 'Newsweek' that she lost all track of time.

"Rose?" She was so startled that she nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked up to see a smiling Dimitri holding a picnic basket.

"I packed us some sandwiches," he told her. "I thought it would be a nice day to have lunch on the bleachers."

"Gosh, is it lunchtime already?"

Dimitri laughed. "Aren't you hungry? I'm starving!"

"Come to think of it, I am, just a little bit," Rose admitted.

"Come on." Dimitri took her hand, and they walked out into the sunshine together.

"I haven't held hands with a guy since..." Rose's voice trailed off as she realized that the last time had been with Adrian, before she'd lapsed into the coma.

"Don't you like it?" Dimitri asked anxiously.

"Oh, yes! It's very nice," Rose said quickly.

They reached the bleachers and sat down, then ate together silently for a few minutes. "You mentioned you were married before," Rose remarked.

"Her name was Tasha," said Dimitri. "She just couldn't get used to small town life. She talked me into accepting a teaching position in Chicago. I didn't want to move, but I did it to make her happy. The marriage failed anyway."

"I'm sorry," said Rose.

"That's all right," Dimitri replied. "We just weren't compatible, that's all. Better to find that out sooner than later."

They ate in silence for a few more minutes. "Do you think we might be compatible?" Rose asked at last.

Dimitri grinned. "What do you think?"

* * *

"Are you sure this is really what you want?" asked Dimitri.

"I'm positive," Rose replied.

Within minutes he was pulling into the driveway of his home. He led her up the front steps, then opened the door and held it for her.

"Thanks," said Rose.

"My pleasure," said Dimitri. "Now for the grand tour. This is the living room, here's the kitchen, the laundry room, guest bedroom number one, guest bedroom number two, bathroom number one, my bedroom, and bathroom number two."

"Everything looks so nice," Rose said as a golden retriever trotted toward her.

"And this is Goldie," Dimitri said, patting the dog's head.

"Hi Goldie." Rose knelt to pet the dog, who licked her face. "You sure are friendly."

"She's been a real lifesaver," Dimitri told Rose. "Please, have a seat."

Rose sat on the sofa and felt herself sink into the luxurious material.

Dimitri switched on the CD player and inserted a CD.

"It sounds really nice," Abigail said. "Who is it?"

"Daniel Bedingfield."

Dimitri was in the kitchen now, and Rose heard bottles clinking. "Say, would you like a wine cooler?"

Rose looked at him, shocked.

Dimitri laughed. "It's all right. You're of age now."

"Oh, yes. Of course." Rose felt really stupid.

Dimitri brought two glasses into the living room and handed one to Rose.

"So how was it?" he asked after Rose had tasted it.

"Not bad. Kind of like a grape soda."

Dimitri sat on the sofa beside Rose and put his arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder and listened to the music and sipped the wine cooler. After awhile she began to feel slightly drowsy.

"Would you like to dance?" Dimitri asked her.

He stood and took Rose's hand, and she rose to dance with him. Rose felt a sense of elation and imagined that it must be a result of the wine, which she had never tasted before tonight.

Dimitri began to kiss her, softly at first, then more passionately. She felt his tongue slide into her mouth and was startled, then relaxed and savored the sensation.

"Let's go into the bedroom," Dimitri whispered, taking her hand and leading her down the hall.

He began to kiss her again, and to touch her breasts. Rose began to feel a yearning, a desire she had never felt before. It both frightened and excited her at the same time.

Dimitri unzipped her dress and tugged it off.

"Let's get on the bed," he whispered.

Wearing nothing but her bra and panties, she lay back on his bed, and he lay beside her, still kissing her deeply and touching her breasts. Gently he removed her bra and took first one nipple, then the other, into his mouth.

"That feels so nice," Rose murmured. White hot excitement shot through her, and she began to feel a throbbing ache between her legs, and she suddenly wanted very badly for him to touch her there. As if reading her mind, he peeled off her panties and did just that, which caused her to squirm and moan with pleasure. He gently took her hand and guided it to the stiffness between his legs, which she gently caressed, marveling at the velvety feel of his skin.

Dimitri inserted first one, then several fingers, inside of her, which she found a little uncomfortable.

"Are you all right?" he asked her. She nodded.

He removed his fingers and reached for something on the dresser. A few seconds later she felt him enter her. She felt a sharp pain which made her gasp and caused him to pause for just a moment. When he continued, she found that the sensations were very pleasurable, like nothing she had ever experienced before.

She heard him cry out and felt him thrust into her deeply several times.

"I'll be right back," he whispered, rolling off her and stepping away from the bed. He was back almost immediately, gathering her into his arms and holding her tightly to himself.

"It feels really nice to cuddle with you like this," she told him.

"Mm, I think so too." He kissed her nose.

"Did I do all right?" she asked timidly.

"You did fine, honey." He chuckled. "Did _I _do all right?"

"Well, of course you did...I mean..."

"What?"

"Well, you've been married and all."

Dimitri laughed. "So is that supposed to make me an expert?"

"By comparison to me, yes."

He was amused. "It's not a competitive sport, like football or leading cheers."

"I know that." Rose felt extremely awkward.

"You have no reason at all to feel badly, Rose. I'm not disappointed in you one bit. Very much the opposite, in fact."

"Thanks, Dimitri. I feel so much better now."

Dimitri didn't say anything, and to Rose it sounded as if he were crying.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"It's just that it's so unfair...you missed out on so much...Roza, I wish that I could give you back all the time you lost."

"It's all right, Dimitri. I'm here now. We're here now, together, and that's all that matters."

"You're a brave woman, Rose. A very brave woman."

He kissed her face gently, softly. She snuggled up to him and felt more secure than she had since she had awakened from the coma.


	7. Touching Base With Lissa

The following morning, Dimitri lay propped up on one elbow in bed watching Rose's face, which was peaceful in sleep. He remembered the first time he had held her in his arms, twenty years previously, after she had collapsed. At the time, he had had no idea that he would ever hold her as he had that night. As he softly touched her hair, he felt fiercely protective of her, longing to shield her from all harm.

Rose yawned, stretched, and opened her eyes. She looked confused for just a minute, then saw Dimitri's smiling face and remembered.

"Good morning, beautiful." Dimitri lightly kissed her nose. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Mm hm." Rose smiled and nodded. "Did you?"

"Better than I have in a long, long time." That was true. The warm glow Dimitri had felt as he had held Rose in his arms had lulled him right to sleep.

"So, what are we now?"

"What do you mean?" Dimitri was puzzled.

"Well, since we...you know...we can never go back to being just friends now, can we?"

"Why can't we?"

"Well...you know..." Rose looked acutely embarrassed.

"How do you feel about what we did last night, Roza?"

"I feel...well, I feel really happy...and I feel closer to you right now than I've ever felt to another person."

"That's why it's called making love, sweetie."

"Do you feel that way too?"

"I sure do."

She looked immensely relieved. "So, what are we now? Are we boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Dimitri chuckled gently. "I would be deeply honored to be your boyfriend, Roza."

She grinned widely, and he gave her a big hug. "Come on, let's go get some breakfast," he said softly.

Dimitri cooked chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and then he asked Rose if she would like to go for a walk in the park.

"I haven't done that in so long I can't remember..." her voice trailed off.

"Well, I think it's a lovely day for it," he said.

"I forgot how beautiful it all was," Rose said wistfully as they strolled together, hand in hand.

_"You're _beautiful," Dimitri told her.

"Do you really think so?"

"Oh, absolutely."

"My face looks...different now." Rose's fingers ran slowly over her features. "There are lines that weren't there before, and there are wrinkles at the corners of my eyes now. I look so...old." A sob caught in her throat.

"Look at me, Rose." Dimitri's voice was gentle but firm. "Do I look exactly the same as I did twenty years ago?"

Rose brought her hands to Dimitri's face and gently ran her fingers over his features as she had her own.

"I'm only six years older than you, Rose," Dimitri said gently. "Your senior year of high school was only my second year of teaching and coaching."

"Oh." Rose sounded surprised, as if she had never considered that before.

"Do you think I'm any less attractive than I was twenty years ago?" Dimitri asked.

"Oh...no, of course not," she stammered.

"Well, neither are you." He grinned and took her hand once more.

They walked around the park talking until they were both hungry, and Dimitri bought them hot dogs at a hot dog stand nearby.

"At least the food hasn't changed...that much," Rose commented, which made Dimitri laugh.

"I'd better get you home before your mother thinks I ran away with you," Dimitri said lightly after they had finished eating.

"Will we have other weekends like this?" Rose asked hopefully.

"I certainly hope so," Dimitri said with a grin.

"I don't want to say good-bye," Rose said later as they were sitting in Dimitri's car in front of her house.

"Neither do I, sweetie." Dimitri suddenly felt overcome with emotion as he hugged her. "It's all right. I'll see you again real soon."

He walked her to the door, where he hugged and kissed her tenderly. She turned to go into the house, and Dimitri drove away with a song in his heart.

* * *

" How have you been?" Lissa asked Rose.

"All right, I guess. I think I'm finally getting used to things being so different now." The woman hesitated. "Dimitri's been helping me," she added shyly.

"How are things between you and Dimitri, Rose?"

"They've been really great! Dimitri's such a nice guy. You know, when I was in high school myself and he was a teacher, he always seemed so much older, but now he doesn't anymore. What I mean is..." Rose struggled to find the right words. "It feels like we're more on the same level now. Do you know what I mean?"

"That's because you're an adult now too, Rose."

"I know. But I don't always feel like one. Sometimes I feel like I'm still seventeen, and then I have to remind myself that I'm twenty years older now."

"It'll get easier as time passes, sweetie."

"I sure hope so," Rose said softly.

"I'm sure it will, Rose. I'm so glad that you and Dimitri have become such good friends. He really is a wonderful person. I've been knowing him for years."

"Yeah, I know," Rose giggled.

"Maybe the two of us could have lunch together sometime. You know, catch up on things."

"That would be great! I'd love to have lunch with you sometime."

"How about next Saturday afternoon?"

"All right. I'll be looking forward to it."

"So will I. You take care, sweetie."

Lissa felt a lot better about Rose after she got off the phone. The woman seemed to be handling both her adjustment to the twenty first century and her new relationship with Dimitri just fine as far as Lissa could tell.


	8. The Prom

As Rose approached Lissa in the mall the following Saturday, Lissa was amazed at how much the woman had changed since she had last seen her. Rose exuded much more self confidence than she had before; she was poised and elegant, and there was a determination in her stride that hadn't been there before. She was fashionably dressed in dark jeans and a pink print shirt, and she wore a matching pink headband in her hair.

When Rose saw Lissa, the younger woman beamed.

"Lissa!" she exclaimed eagerly.

"Hi Rose! I can't get over how terrific you look today!"

"Thanks." Rose smiled shyly. "Dimitri helped me choose this outfit."

"Well, it suits you really well. He has very good taste."

Rose smiled and blushed.

"So, do you feel like pizza or Asian this time?"

"Asian's fine."

The two women got their food and found a booth to sit in.

"So tell me, how are things going with Dimitri?"

Rose smiled, blushed, and looked down at her food. Lissa laid an encouraging hand on the girl's arm and waited patiently.

"I really like him a lot," Rose finally told her. "He's always so nice to me, and it's so much fun to be with him. It's funny. I...well, before I just thought of him mostly as a teacher, and now...now, I think of him more as a friend. We...I..." Rose stuttered, seeming unable to find the right words. Lissa smiled encouragingly at her.

"We...you know..._did _it." Rose looked terribly embarrassed.

"Oh, Rose." Lissa smiled and patted her arm. "How did that go? Was it a good experience for you?"

Rose smiled and nodded. "It was...really nice. Dimitri was so gentle and kind, and afterwards, he held me in his arms all night long."

"I told you Dimitri was a good man. I knew that he wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

* * *

"You don't need a high school diploma," Janine told her daughter. "I've provided for you very well, and I can continue to provide for you."

"Just like Daddy provided for you so you could sit around and waste your life?" asked Rose.

"I wasted my life on _you!" _Janine exploded. "For twenty years I fed you, changed your diaper..."

"I appreciate everything you've done for me, Mom," said Rose. "But I really do want that diploma."

Janine shook her head. "That's Dimitri Belikov talking, not you."

"It _is _me!" Rose insisted. "I love you, Mom, and I'm very grateful to be alive, but I can't sit still for you."

* * *

"How would you like to go to the prom?" Dimitri asked Rose.

Rose glanced up, startled. "I wish you'd asked me that twenty years ago," she said with a sigh.

"I'm serious, Roza." Dimitri smiled. "I've been a chaperone at the prom every year since...well, for a number of years now. I'd love for you to accompany me this year."

"Chaperone?" Rose looked doubtful.

"Come on. It'll be fun."

"Well...all right." Rose smiled.

"That's absolutely ridiculous, a woman of your age going to a prom," Janine grumbled when Rose mentioned it to her.

"It's as a _chaperone, _Mom. Dimitri goes every year. He says it's a lot of fun."

"Suit yourself then," Janine said dismissively.

"That's great, Rose!" Lissa said when Rose told her. "I know you'll have a great time."

The night of the prom arrived. Rose, dressed in the simple but elegant dark blue gown Dimitri had helped her choose, waited nervously. At last Dimitri arrived, looking dashing in a rented tuxedo. Rose was overcome, as she had never seen Dimitri dressed formally before. Dimitri noticed the expression on her face and laughed affectionately.

"Oh my God, Dimitri," was all that she could say.

"You like?" He slowly turned around so that she could see what he looked like from the back as well.

"I _love!"_

Dimitri laughed again. "Thank you very much. You look absolutely stunning yourself."

Rose had spent a long time working to get her make-up just as perfect as she could, and she hoped that Dimitri liked the affect she had achieved.

The chaperones arrived at the rented hall a little while before the students were expected to start showing up. The music began to play, and the students began to arrive and move onto the dance floor.

Soon, 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias began to play, and the lights went down as couples began to slow dance. Rose felt Dimitri's arms gently encircle and embrace her, and she rested her head on his shoulder. Dimitri listened to the words of the song and thought about how appropriate they seemed.

The night seemed to fly by, and before Rose realized it, it was time to leave.

"Well, did you have a nice time?" Dimitri asked her in the car on the way back to his house.

"Tonight I actually felt just like a teenager again," Rose replied.

"Tonight was incredible," Dimitri said softly.

They were silent until they were back in the house. Goldie gave Rose her usual warm welcome, and Rose affectionately patted the dog's head and stroked her silky fur. Dimitri opened the door and Goldie ran outside. Then he followed Rose to the bedroom.

Dimitri unzipped Rose's gown, and it fell to the floor. He began placing kisses along her neck and collarbone. At the same time, he unhooked her bra and gently lowered the straps, and it fell to the floor on top of the gown. Dimitri lifted Rose, now clad only in her panties, and carried her to the bed. After gently laying her on the bed, he quickly removed her panties. All thoughts of melancholy vanished from Rose's mind as Dimitri's tongue quickly elevated her to new heights of ecstasy.


	9. Rose's Graduation

**June 2015  
**

The day of Rose's high school graduation dawned bright and sunny. Lissa's eyes scanned the crowd and found Dimitri, and she rushed to join him.

"Bless her heart," she said. "She's worked so hard for this."

"I know," Dimitri replied. "I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of her." Lissa could tell that something weighed heavily on his mind, but she didn't pry.

Dimitri nervously fingered the small box that was in his pants pocket. He hoped that when the opportunity came, his courage wouldn't fail him. Of course it was impossible to predict what Rose's reaction would be, but he felt that he knew her well enough to feel assured that she would at the very least be kind, whatever her decision was.

Several announcements were made, and then 'Pomp and Circumstance' began to play as the graduates walked across the stage to receive their diplomas.

"Most of you have spent four years earning your diplomas," the high school principal said. "Well, it's taken twenty years to earn this one, and my guess is that this is just the beginning. It is with great pride that I welcome Miss Rose Hathaway to the class of 2015."

Everyone clapped and cheered as Rose walked to the front to collect her diploma, then proudly held it up for all her family and friends to see.

When the ceremony ended, Dimitri and Lissa both got in line to hug and congratulate Rose. Janine Hathaway was there, of course, and so were Adrian and Sydney. Tears of joy streamed down Rose's face as she warmly embraced each of her family members.

"I knew you could do it!" Dimitri whispered in her ear when his turn came.

Janine and Sydney both took many photos of Rose holding her diploma, and then the whole family went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. After that, Dimitri took Rose to the park. He hadn't had the chance to be alone with her after the ceremony as he had hoped.

"I'm so proud of you, Roza," Dimitri said as they strolled along hand in hand. "To have come through everything you have and then go back and finish high school is quite an accomplishment!"

"It's only what I should have done twenty years ago." Rose smiled and shrugged.

"What happened to you wasn't your fault. No one thinks any less of you for it."

"I know." Rose saw a pretty flower and stopped to pick it.

"So, what's next for you?" asked Dimitri.

"Next for me?"

"Well, do you want to go on to college?"

"I guess I always just assumed I would, but I feel like I'm too old now." Rose sighed. Dimitri saw that there were tears in her eyes. He stopped walking and turned her around to face him.

"Listen to me, Rose. You are _not _to old to go to college. I recently heard of a woman who just received her bachelor's degree, and do you know how old she was? Eighty-four!"

"That's nice." Rose smiled.

"Listen, Roza, I'm not trying to pressure you," Dimitri continued. "Of course you don't have to go to college if you don't want to. It's just that I know that you're a very intelligent woman, and it would be a real shame if you didn't live up to your potential. Not that going to college is the only way you could accomplish that," he added quickly.

Rose looked thoughtful. "I think I'd like to do something to help other people like me," she said softly. "You know, people who were in a coma for a long time and then came out of it."

"That's a wonderful idea, Rose." Dimitri beamed. "I'm sure you'll find a way to do just that."

They walked along in silence for a little while, Rose basking in the glow of her recent achievement, Dimitri struggling to find the nerve to ask her what he wanted so badly to.

"Hey, Rose," he said finally. Boy, was this hard.

"Yes?" She looked at him curiously.

"Look, Rose, I...I want to ask you something important. We've been seeing one another for a while now, and...well, I've come to realize that..." Dimitri dropped to one knee. "I love you very much, Rose. Will you marry me?"

Rose gasped with surprise, then looked delighted. "Oh, Dimitri! I'd love to marry you, but..."

"But what?" he asked softly.

"No one knows whether my recovery is permanent, Dimitri. What if I were to slip back into a coma and never awaken? It wouldn't be fair to you to be married to a vegetable."

"Oh, Rose." Dimitri's voice was so soft that it was almost a whisper. "Nobody knows what the future holds. That's why we should live every day to the fullest. Listen, Roza, if we marry, and five years, two years, or even one year down the road, you do slip back into a coma, we would still have the memory of the precious time we did have together to treasure, and to me that would be worth it. On the other hand, if we let fear keep us from taking a chance, all we'll have to look back on is regrets."

"Oh, Dimitri." Rose was crying softly, but there was a big grin on her face. "Since you put it that way, how could I ever say no?"

"So you will, then?"

"Yes, Dimitri. I will."

He took the ring from the box and placed it on her finger. Then he embraced her as if he would never let her go.


	10. The Wedding

As the music began to play, Rose started her journey down the aisle. Dimitri, impeccable in his black tuxedo, smiled proudly as he watched her approach. He thought that he had never seen her looking any lovelier than she did today. She wore a white wedding gown, and underneath her veil her face looked freshly scrubbed and glowing with happiness.

Janine Hathaway's face bore an expression of disapproval. She thought that her elder daughter was being impulsive, that Rose should have waited longer, been more sure of what she wanted in life, gotten to know Dimitri better. Sitting with her husband and son, Sydney Ivashkov tried to remember whether her own wedding dress all those years ago had been as nice as Rose's. Lissa, sitting with her own family, felt nothing but happiness for her long-time friend.

The music stopped, and the minister began to speak. Rose looked nervously at Dimitri and he smiled reassuringly at her.

"Dimitri Ivanovich Belikov, do you take Rose Marie Hathaway as your lawfully wedded wife?" asked the minister.

"I do." Dimitri's voice rang out clear and steady.

"Rose Marie Hathaway, do you take Dimitri Ivanovich Belikov as your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do." Rose's voice was soft but sure.

"Then by the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," the minister announced. Dimitri raised Rose's veil and kissed her lips. His lips were warm and soft and lingered a bit longer than necessary. Rose felt a thrill of excitement and happiness go down her spine. _We really did it! _she wanted to shout.

A smiling Dimitri led his new wife to the reception, where the cake and other refreshments awaited them.

"Big smile!" someone shouted. It was Mason Ivashkov, holding his camera and grinning from ear to ear.

Dimitri sliced the wedding cake and served first Rose, then himself, a slice. He fed a bite to Rose first, and then she fed a bite to him. Then they mingled with their guests and chatted with them.

"I'm so happy for you, Rose," Lissa told her friend. "Dimitri's a good man. You're very fortunate."

"I know he is, Lissa. I hope that I can make him happy."

"I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."

Later, Lissa chatted with Dimitri. "So I see you were brave enough to take the plunge again," she laughed.

"You know, after Tasha, I thought 'never again'," Dimitri replied. "At that time I thought that Rose's situation was hopeless, that she'd never emerge from her coma. I never told you or anyone else, but I think I was already beginning to fall in love with Rose even before she lapsed into her coma. I couldn't do anything about it at the time as she was only seventeen, and besides, I was one of her teachers. You'll never know how thrilled I was to learn that she had regained consciousness. To me it was just such a miracle. In a way, I saw it as not only renewed hope for Rose, but renewed hope for me as well. I lost my heart to her in virtually no time at all. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was when I realized that she loved me back."

After the reception came a long drive to the motel. Rose, too excited to nap in the car, chatted eagerly about various subjects. Dimitri felt as if he were on top of the world. He and Rose were finally one.

* * *

"We're finally here," Dimitri announced as the car pulled into the motel's parking lot. Rose yawned.

"And not a moment too soon, I see," Dimitri laughed.

"It's not too late for a quick swim before dinner," Dimitri suggested once they were unpacked and settled in their motel room.

"Sounds like fun!" Rose exclaimed.

They quickly changed out of their wedding clothes and into their swimsuits. Rose looked admiringly at Dimitri's body in his swimming trunks. Without realizing it, she licked her lips.

"You look absolutely delicious!" she exclaimed.

He laughed. "So do you."

He took her hand and led her to the motel's swimming pool. Dimitri entered the pool first, and Rose perched on the side and then fell into his arms.

"Race you to the other side!" he said cheerfully.

They swam the length of the pool several times. To Rose it felt so good to be able to stretch and move about after the long car trip.

"Ready to go for dinner?" Dimitri asked after awhile.

"I do feel a bit hungry." With a start, Rose realized that she was starving.

They went back to their motel room, took showers, and put on clean clothes. Then Dimitri drove to a nearby seafood restaurant they had noticed on the way to the motel.

Rose ordered her favorite: boiled lobster with melted butter, fried oysters, coleslaw, and cheese grits. Dimitri teased her about the fried oysters.

"I think I can be a little bit decadent on my honeymoon," she told him.

They both had iced tea with lemon to drink, and for dessert Rose had key lime pie.

After dinner they went back to the motel, where they cuddled and watched 'Barefoot.' While the movie's credits were rolling, Dimitri lightly traced his fingers up and down his wife's arm.

"Do you want something?" Rose asked with feigned innocence.

Dimitri chuckled softly. "What do you think?" He had a big grin on his face. Rose grinned back and began to unbutton his shirt. Once she had rid him of his shirt, she helped him take her blouse and bra off. Immediately his tongue and fingers were on her nipples, licking them and gently sucking them. She felt herself go moist.

Dimitri's erection strained against her skin through both their clothing. She unfastened his pants and pulled them off, then removed his underwear. She took first just the tip of him, then his whole length, into her mouth, gently massaging the sensitive skin over his prostate at the same time.

"Oh my God, you're so good at this!" Dimitri exclaimed. He moaned loudly and soon began to thrust into her mouth. She lay back on the bed, and his hand stroking her through her damp panties felt as hot as fire.

"God, you're so wet," he whispered, laughing softly at the eagerness with which she shed her panties. He began to tease her by slowly planting kisses on the insides of her thighs, causing her to whimper impatiently. He chuckled softly and began to lick and suck the skin around her opening. She came almost immediately. Dimitri moved several fingers in and out of her for a few seconds, then quickly put on a condom and entered her.

Afterwards they lay together reveling in the intimacy they had just shared. Rose was the first to speak.

"When I was a little girl I used to fantasize about getting married," she said. "By the time I was eight years old, I had already decided what dress I wanted to wear, what kind of music I wanted played, the whole bit."

Dimitri laughed. "Do you know what you are to me, Roza?"

"What?"

"You're like a ray of sunshine on a dreary day. Before you came into my life, everything just seemed to be various shades of gray. Then when I met you again after you woke up, all of a sudden my world was filled with brilliant colors. That's what you did for me, Roza. You literally brought me back to life, and I feel that no matter what I do I could never repay you."

Rosel was crying.

"Hey," he said, kissing away her tears. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "It's just that no one has ever said anything like that to me before at all."

"I swear, every word of it is true," he told her. "I love you, Rose Belikov."

"I love you, too." She smiled at the sound of her new name. He lay with her back up against him and his arms around her stomach. Soon they were both sound asleep.


	11. Baby Hunger

"Rose, I'd like you to meet my sister, Jill," said Lissa.

"How do you do." Rose smiled and shook Jill's hand.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Rose," said Jill. Lissa had told Jill about the twenty-year coma that Rose had so recently emerged from.

"Marriage must suit you, Rose. You're positively glowing!" Lissa exclaimed. This was the first time she'd seen Rose since the wedding.

"I suppose it does," Rose said with a shy smile.

The three women ordered their food and found a table.

"I've been contacted by a movie producer," Rose told the other two women. "He wants to make a movie about me."

Lissa's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding!"

Rose shook her head. "I couldn't believe it myself at first. When I got the call, I felt sure it was someone playing a joke on me. But when he started talking about contracts and agreements I knew he was serious."

"What does Dimitri think about it?" asked Lissa.

"He thinks it's wonderful that someone thinks that my experience is special enough to make a movie about. He says that perhaps the movie will serve as an inspiration to others."

"And how do you feel about it, Rose?"

"If there's any way at all that it can help other people in my situation, I'm all for it, of course. That's the most important thing in the world to me, to help other coma victims. But my sister..." Rose's voice trailed off.

"Sydney? What about her?"

"She thinks that to make a movie about it would be an invasion of the family's privacy. She's afraid that the movie won't be sympathetic to her and that it will make her look bad. Dimitri thinks she's just being jealous, and I think he's right. Sydney's always been jealous of me."

"Lissa told me that Sydney married your high school sweetheart," Jill told Rose.

"She did! That really hurt me, too. Worse than anything has ever hurt me before."

"I can just imagine," Jill said sympathetically. "Yet _she's _the one who's jealous of _you?" _

Rose nodded sadly.

"So how did your lunch date go today?" Dimitri asked Rose that evening. They had just put away the last of the dinner dishes and were snuggling cozily together on the sofa.

"It was great! Lissa's sister Jill is really nice."

"I'm so glad you enjoyed it." Dimitri smiled. "Did you tell them about the movie plans?"

"Yes, and they were really impressed."

"As rightfully they should have been. I can't tell you how proud I am of you, Roza."

"For waking up after having been in a coma for twenty years?"

"For having come as far as you have despite having been in a coma for twenty years. You're truly an inspiration, girl. That's why they want to make a movie about you."

To Rose's surprise, her sister Sydney called a few days later.

"I just wanted to know how the movie plans are coming along," she told Rose. "And to let you know that our family will soon have two celebrities."

"What do you mean?" asked Rose.

"I'm about to become a published author!" Sydney exclaimed, giving Rose time to be duly impressed. "I'm almost finished with the rough draft of my new tell-all book, 'My Sister: The Twenty-Year Coma Girl.' Now all I have to do is find an agent and a publisher to submit it to."

"That's great, Sydney." Somehow Rose just couldn't seem to muster the appropriate enthusiasm.

"I'm sure my book will be at least as big a hit as your movie will," Sydney boasted.

* * *

At last everything was ready for the filming of the movie to begin. The part of Dimitri would be played by Jason Schwartzman, that of Rose by Kirsten Dunst, that of Sydney by Drew Barrymore, that of Adrian by Joaquin Phoenix, that of Mason by Nathan Kress, that of Rose at seventeen by Jennette McCurdy, and that of Janine by Cissy Spacek. Rose wasn't able to watch the actual filming, but she and the rest of her family watched a private viewing of the movie before it was broadcast on TV.

Rose, Dimitri, Adrian, Mason, and Janine all showed up to watch the movie.

"Sydney said she had a headache," Adrian explained to the others.

"Well, tell her we missed her," Janine said.

Rose found the first part of the movie, which portrayed her life as a seventeen-year-old cheerleader prior to the coma, very difficult to watch. Hoping that none of the others would hear her, she sobbed quietly during the romantic scenes between her teenage self and Adrian as a teenager. Dimitri heard her and put his arms around her, and she let him hold her.

"Well, that was simply terrible!" Janine spluttered indignantly once the movie had ended. "They made me look like some kind of needy, over-possessive control freak!"

Her words broke the tension that was in the air, and the others all laughed with relief.

"My God, Rose, I just love you so much," Dimitri whispered as he got into bed with her that night. "I don't think I even realized just how much until now."

"That was so very hard to watch," Rose told him. "To see again what my life was like before...to feel all those memories come flooding back..."

"I know, sweetheart. I know," Dimitri murmured into her hair. "You're by far the bravest person I've ever known, Rose Belikov, and I just feel so very honored and grateful to be married to you."

* * *

"So, how does it feel to be a student again?" Dimitri asked his wife early one morning in late August.

"Exciting! And...well, I'm a little bit nervous too," Rose admitted with a shaky laugh.

"Oh, you'll do fine!" Dimitri grinned and gave his wife a big hug. 'I have all the confidence in the world in you."

"I'll do my best," Rose said meekly.

"Well, that's all that can be asked of anyone," Dimitri said brightly. "And in your case, I'm sure that will be more than enough."

Rose had registered as a part-time student at the local community college, majoring in education, and today was her first day. She was taking two classes, one that met on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and another that met only on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

"Good-bye, Dimitri," she told her husband as they were both on their way out the door.

"Good-bye, sweetheart," Dimitri said softly, kissing her lips. "Good luck."

"Thank you."

The sun shone brightly on the college campus as Rose drove into the parking lot. She found a parking space, grabbed her books and supplies, and headed for the building where her first class was. She entered the room, found a seat, and glanced around nervously, expecting to find a sea of eighteen-year-old faces. To her surprise and delight, she saw several women who looked to be around her age. _Perhaps I'll get the chance to say hello to them later, _she thought.

The morning passed quickly, and after her second class ended, Rose drove back home, made herself a sandwich for lunch, and went over her notes until it was time to prepare dinner.

"So, how did it go?" asked Dimitri when he returned home that evening.

"I think I'm really going to enjoy it," Rose told him.

"I think you will too," Dimitri replied.

Rose began to feel that her life was now complete...except for one thing. It was something she'd desired since early childhood.

"Why don't we just skip the birth control this time?" she asked Dimitri one night as they were about to make love. It was several weeks after her classes at the college had started.

Dimitri paused, startled. "Shouldn't we at least talk about that first?"

"I want a baby, Dimitri. Don't you?"

"Well, sure, but...are you sure it would be safe? I mean..."

"I already talked to my doctor about it, and he gave me the green light."

"Well...all right, then, in that case. It just seems a bit sudden, is all."

When they had finished, Rose lay snuggled in Dimitri's arms, warm and contented. _There might be a baby inside me now, _she marveled.

It didn't happen the first month. Rose looked at the blood stains on her panties and felt very disappointed, and a little bit anxious.

"Do you suppose it's too late?" she asked Dimitri fearfully.

"I think you're worrying prematurely," he told her. "It doesn't always happen the first month. In fact, it's fairly unusual when it does."

Dimitri thought back to how eager he'd been to start a family with Tasha, how disappointed he'd been when he'd learned that she didn't feel the same way. Things were so very different with Rose. She seemed as eager to become a parent now as Dimitri had been years before. Yet, that had been years before, and he was a lot older now. He loved Rose and wanted her to be happy, but he'd become accustomed to the way his life was now and knew that a baby would mean big changes to it. He wasn't sure how prepared he'd be to deal with those changes.


	12. Tears Of Joy

It didn't happen the second month either, but by that time, Rose had other things with which to occupy her mind. She found college courses to be much more fast-paced than high school courses had been, and she had to devote many afternoon and weekend hours to studying. Football season had also started, and Rose volunteered to help run the concession stands while Dimitri coached. During half time he came over to chat with her.

"This really takes me back," Rose commented.

"So, how does it feel to be on the sidelines for a change?" Dimitri asked with a smile.

"A little sad," Rose admitted as she watched the cheerleaders perform. "I wonder whether I could still do those moves."

"I'll bet you could, with practice," Dimitri replied.

The next day, which was Saturday, Dimitri returned from grocery shopping to find his wife practicing cheers on the back lawn. Rose tried to do a split and only made it halfway down before toppling over in pain.

"Oh, hon, are you all right?" Dimitri rushed to her side and helped her up.

"Guess I'm a bit rusty," Rose mumbled, embarrassed to have been seen.

"Oh, Roza, there's so much more to life than cheer leading," Dimitri said brightly.

"I know." She grinned seductively, and Dimitri laughed and picked her up and carried her into the house, where he sat her on the sofa and she pulled him down on top of herself.

* * *

Rose missed her period the following month. She didn't say anything about it to Dimitri, as she didn't want to get his hopes up too early, but when her breasts became unusually tender and she started feeling queasy, she bought an at-home pregnancy test and showed it to Dimitri.

"Let's get up a few minutes early in the morning and take it together," she suggested. They did so, and stood in the bathroom together watching as the wand turned blue.

"Hurray!" Rose shouted, kissing Dimitri's cheek and jumping up and down excitedly. Dimitri just stood there, grinning.

"Let's wait until Christmas to tell everyone," Rose said.

The fall term at the college ended a couple of weeks before Christmas. Rose received an 'A' in one class and an 'A-' in the other.

"Congratulations! I knew you could do it!" Dimitri grinned and embraced his wife tightly.

"I love how everything finally seems to be falling into place," Rose said.

"So do I," Dimitri replied. "You deserve every bit of it, hon." He still saw Lissa on a regular basis at the high school and had longed to tell her that he was going to be a father ever since he'd found out himself but felt that he shouldn't, since Rose wanted to wait until Christmas and surprise everyone.

Christmas Day was cool and crisp. Dimitri and Rose went to Janine's house for dinner. Adrian, Sydney, and Mason arrived about a half hour later. Dimitri and Rose waited until everyone was seated at the dinner table to share their own news.

"Everyone, I have some very happy news," Rose began. "Dimitri and I are going to have a baby in July!"

Janine spluttered and almost choked. Adrian and Sydney both looked shocked.

"Congratulations, Aunt Rose and Uncle Dimitri! That's great!" Mason was all smiles.

"Thank you, Mason," said Rose and Dimitri.

"Well...that's wonderful, of course," Sydney said shakily, exchanging glances with her husband.

Janine frowned darkly. "A baby, Rose? At _your _age?"

* * *

"I'm not even forty yet, Mom, and pregnancy and childbirth are safer than ever these days. Lots of women in their thirties, forties, and even fifties are having babies." Rose felt hurt that her mother hadn't reacted more positively to her news.

"You'll be...let's see..._how _old when this child graduates high school?"

"Only fifty-six, Mom. That's not that old."

"Dear God..." Janine hid her face in her hands. The family continued to eat silently.

"I'm really happy for you, Aunt Rose. You and Uncle Dimitri are going to make wonderful parents, and besides, I've always wanted a cousin," Mason told Rose after the meal.

"Thank you, Mason." Rose gave her nephew a quick hug.

* * *

"Lissa!" Dimitri greeted his longtime friend as he saw her getting out of her car. "How was your Christmas break?"

"Great!" Lissa smiled as she fell into step beside Dimitri. The spring term had just started, and Dimitri and Lissa were on their way to their respective classes. "How was yours?"

"Really nice, thanks." Dimitri cleared his throat. "Actually, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for awhile now, but Rose wanted me to wait until after she announced it to the family at Christmas. Roza and I are going to be parents!"

"Dimitri, that's great!" Lissa enthused. "I know you and Rose will make wonderful parents!"

"To be honest, I had second thoughts about it at first," Dimitri admitted. "I wondered whether it would be a wise decision, considering our ages, but now that I've had time to get used to the idea, I'm thrilled!"

"Oh, I don't think you and Rose are too old to be parents at all," Lissa assured him. "I'm really happy for you!"

Later that evening, Lissa called Rose to congratulate her on the happy news.

"Dimitri and I are both really happy about it," Rose told her. "But my Mom thinks it's a bad idea. She thinks I'm too old to have a baby, but Lissa, I was in a coma for all of my twenties and early thirties, the time when most women become mothers. If I want to have a baby at all, it has to be now, since I can't reverse time. Don't you see?"

"Of course I see, Rose," said Lissa. "I understand completely. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I'd never had Skylar."

"I knew _you'd _understand, Lissa," said Rose.

* * *

"See, this is the head," the ultrasound technician told Dimitri and Rose as she moved the wand over Rose's abdomen. "And this is the body."

"Wow, the head's just about as big as the rest of the entire body!" Rose exclaimed.

"It is at this stage, but as development progresses, the body will catch up and then everything will look more in proportion," the technician explained. She took some measurements and then printed out some pictures for Dimitri and Rose to keep.

"Do you think Mom would want to see them?" Rose asked Dimitri.

"Of course she would! Why wouldn't she? This is her grandchild!"

"But you know how she feels about me being pregnant..."

"Oh, she'll get over it," Dimitri assured his wife. "I'm sure Adrian and Sydney would love to see them as well."

Rose did take the ultrasound pictures to show her mother, and as Dimitri had predicted, Janine was thrilled. Then she took them to show Sydney, who gushed over them as well.

"Guess what, Rose," said Sydney. "Your baby will have a cousin the same age, because I'm pregnant now as well!"

"You are?" Rose was truly surprised, as she'd thought Mason was the only child Adrian and Sydney would ever have. "Why, that's wonderful! Congratulations!"

Rose told Dimitri about her conversation with Sydney that evening. He rolled his eyes and said nothing. A few days later, he told her that he'd talked to Adrian.

"He told me Sydney isn't pregnant," Dimitri said. "He said she'd been trying. He said she'd bought one of those home pregnancy tests and gotten a false positive result."

"But she already has Mason, and he's grown now," Rose pointed out. "Why would she all of a sudden want to start all over again with a new baby?"

"Adrian said she always wanted a daughter. I asked Adrian how _he _felt about it, and he said that if it makes Sydney happy, then it's all right with him. Personally, I feel sure I know the _real _reason Sydney wants to get pregnant."

Rose sighed. "So do I." She and Dimitri embraced one another wordlessly.

* * *

"Due to your advanced age, I'm recommending that you undergo an amniocentesis," the obstetrician, Dr. Newman, told Rose. "While chances are overwhelmingly good that your baby's perfectly healthy, this test will help to put our minds at ease."

"You mean where they stick a needle into my belly?" Rose couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive.

"Yes, but the area will be anesthetized, so all you'll feel will be a tiny prick," Dr. Newman assured her. "It'll all be over with very quickly, and we'll have the results back in just a couple of weeks."

Rose shared the news with Dimitri, and asked if he'd be able to go to the appointment with her.

"Of course I'll be there," Dimitri assured her. "We're in this together, you know." He smiled and kissed her lips.

A few days later, Rose lay back on an examining table with her abdomen exposed as a long needle was inserted into it. On the ultrasound screen, she watched her baby move its tiny arms and legs and prayed that the needle wouldn't touch it. She sighed with relief when the needle was withdrawn filled with fluid. Then she went back home and rested for a couple of days and waited for the results.

The telephone call she'd been waiting for finally came a couple of weeks later.

"Good news," Dr. Newman's nurse told her. "The results of your amniocentesis are back, and everything looks perfectly normal. I can also tell you the baby's gender, if you want to know."

"Well...sure, I suppose so."

"It's a boy."

_Wow! I hope he looks just like Dimitri, _Rose thought. She couldn't wait to tell her husband the good news. Dimitri arrived at the usual time and hugged and kissed his wife hello.

"The doctor's office called today with the results of the amniocentesis," she told him.

"And?"

"And it came back perfectly normal."

"That's great news, honey!"

"And that's not all." Rose smiled mysteriously. "I know what we're having," she continued in a singsong voice.

"What?"

"Do you _really _want to know?"

"Come on, Roza..." Dimitri chuckled, but there was a hint of impatience in his voice.

"It's a boy."

"Hot dog!" Dimitri shouted, joyfully picking Rose up and spinning her around, gingerly, of course.

"I take it you're happy," Rose said.

"Happy? I'm ecstatic!"

The next day, Dimitri called Rose to tell her he was going to be a bit later than usual coming home from work, as he had an errand to run. He entered the house carrying a large bag, from which he pulled a genuine rawhide football and an infant-sized football jersey.

Rose was startled for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Don't you think it's a little bit early for that?"

* * *

The spring term at college came and went and, to her relief, Rose didn't go into labor before the end of classes. She didn't know what she would have done if she had.

She didn't register for classes during the summer, and as Dimitri only taught summer school P.E. part time, he had a lot more free time as well.

Rose's labor pains started around midnight one night in June. The contractions were so strong that they awakened her, and her water broke and flooded the bed.

"Dimitri, it's time," she said, shaking her husband awake.

Instantly alert, Dimitri hurriedly dressed and drove his wife to the hospital, where she was admitted and taken to a room.

Rose was hooked up to an I.V. and monitor and quickly examined.

"You're dilated four centimeters," the nurse told her. "You'll be ready to deliver in a few hours."

At first the contractions weren't that bad, but as time wore on, they became much stronger, and Rose found herself having to depend on the breathing exercises she and Dimitri had practiced together in the prepared childbirth classes they'd taken.

It was in the early morning hours that the nurse finally examined Rose and told her that it was time to push.

"Would you like to watch the delivery?" the nurse asked.

"Oh, yes!" Rose replied. "I didn't even know you could do that."

"Of course you can, if you want," the nurse told her with a smile.

The nurse placed a mirror between Rose's legs, and Rose and Dimitri watched in wonder as their son came into the world.

"Oh, Roza, I just love you so much!" Dimitri told his wife when it was all over and he was holding his son in his arms. Tears flowed from his eyes, and they flowed from Rose's as well.


End file.
